Feb. 28, 2009

Box Score

Jacksonville, Fla. - Ohio State scored six runs in the top of the fifth on Saturday afternoon and that proved to be the difference as the George Mason baseball team lost to the Buckeyes, 11-5 in the Kennel Club Classic in Jacksonville, Fla. Mason scored all five of its runs in the final five innings but Ohio State answered nearly every time to drop the Patriots to 4-2 on the year.

Kevin Crum took the loss for Mason, giving up seven runs in four and one-third innings. He allowed nine hits and two walks while striking out two. Chris Henderson and Brent Weiss each had three hits while Shane Davis and Scott Krieger each had two hits.

The game was scoreless until the fourth when three straight one-out singles made it 1-0. In the fifth, Zach Hurley led off with a homer and with one out, Crum hit a batter, walked a batter and gave up three straight singles to make it 5-0. Shawn Griffith came on in relief and he allowed an RBI single and an RBI ground out to make it 7-0.

The Patriots got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when Henderson led off with a home run. In the bottom of the sixth, Davis and Weiss singled and an error allowed Davis to score making it 7-2. In the top of the seventh, Ryan Dew hit a solo homer to make it 8-2. Mason again made it a five-run game, this time with a Kreiger solo homer in the bottom of the seventh.

In the top of the eighth, Ohio State used a two-out single and a steal to put a runner in scoring position and Justin Miller's single made it 9-3. Mason's biggest inning came in the eighth when Dan Palumbo singled, Weiss doubled and Aaron Tenny grounded out to make it 9-4. Spencer Wiggins followed with a single to make it a 9-5 game but Henderson grounded into a double play to end the threat. In the ninth, the Buckeyes got the runs back on a bases-loaded double by Cory Kovada.

The Patriots will look to salvage the tournament on Sunday when they play host North Florida at 3 p.m.